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Accepted Manuscript: Measurement of the W W and W Z production cross section using final states with a charged lepton and heavy-flavor jets in the full CDF Run II data set

Title: Measurement of the W W and W Z production cross section using final states with a charged lepton and heavy-flavor jets in the full CDF Run II data set

We present a measurement of the total WW and WZ production cross sections in $$p\bar{p}$$ collision at $$\sqrt{s}$$ = 1.96 TeV, in a final state consistent with leptonic W boson decay and jets originating from heavy-flavor quarks from either a W or a Z boson decay. This analysis uses the full data set collected with the CDF II detector during Run II of the Tevatron collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.4 fb -1. An analysis of the dijet mass spectrum provides 3.7σ evidence of the summed production processes of either WW or WZ bosons with a measured total cross section of σ WW+WZ = 13.7±3.9 pb. Independent measurements of the WW and WZ production cross sections are allowed by the different heavy-flavor decay patterns of the W and Z bosons and by the analysis of secondary-decay vertices reconstructed within heavy-flavor jets. The productions of WW and of WZ dibosons are independently seen with significances of 2.9σ and 2.1σ, respectively, with total cross sections of σ WW = 9.4±4.2 pb and σ WZ = 3.7$$+2.5\atop{-2.2}$$ pb. Lastly, the measurements are consistent with standard-model predictions.